Friday, August 10, 2007

Standing Tall With Jackie Shane!

The history of American music is heavily-studded with the stories and recordings of pretty eccentric characters. In the black music world there was certainly no shortage of such figures. One area where quite a few eccentrics existed was in gender and/or sexual ambiguity: Little Richard springs immediately to mind, but also one must consider Esquerita (aka Eskew Reeder or S.Q. Reeder), whom some consider to be Richard's inspiration; Wilmer "Little Axe" Broadnax led the Spirit of Memphis, among other male gospel groups, but it was not revealed until Little Axe's death that Broadnax was a woman performing under her brother's name; and Sylvester ("You Make Me Feel Mighty Real") ruled the disco world in the late '70s. The R&B singer Jackie Shane fits within this pantheon with his androgynous performances, but unfortunately his story is not as well-known as some of the others.

I haven't been able to find out much about the Toronto-based Shane, except that he had only one R&B hit, "Any Other Way," released in 1963 on Sue. This page from Queer Music Heritage sheds a little more light on the story, but not much. What I do know, though, is that Jackie Shane's music had soul to spare, and "Stand Up Straight and Tall," a loosey-goosey, blues-oriented groover (dig the slight Latin groove underneath this one) reflects this fact. Fortunately for us all, there is performance footage of Shane on YouTube, appearing on WLAC-TV's "Night Train," doing "Walking The Dog." The appearance probably came from 1964 or 1965. Johnny Jones & The King Casuals ("Soul Poppin'") are the backing band and I think that's the Hytones on background vocals and choreography. Check out this soulful performance!

5 comments:

Hi! I'd love to get a copy. I found a few singles by Jackie Shane on Youtube. I wonder if it would be possible to gather them together to produce a collected album. Jackie's on a par with Timi Yuro and early Dusty Springfield.

There is a Cd compilation available on Cookin' CDs entitled "All The Singles Plus The Concert" which was recorded in Toronto, Canada in 1968. I found my copy on Amazon, but I've seen the CD listed on gemm.com and on eBay. Don't pay more than $20 as copies at that price are available if you search. Unfortunately the CD has no booklet or any bio information at all. The liner looks like it was photo copied, so it may well be a bootleg. However the sound of the single recordings is good and the concert was recorded on a mono tape recorder and the sound quality is what you would expect from that era. Well worth the price!

About "Get on Down" and "Soul on the Air"

Although "Get on Down with the Stepfather of Soul!" was conceived as a rare soul blog, over its nine-plus years of existence it has evolved into being the Web's best source for '60s and '70s soul radio broadcasts, known as airchecks, thanks to the "Soul on the Air" series. With that in mind, the original blog concept has been retired (see this blog post for more information). This blog is now dedicated to the "Soul on the Air" features, which are listed below. Enjoy!

Meet the Stepfather of Soul

Jason Stone, the "Stepfather of Soul," is an attorney, record collector, game show buff, boardgamer, board game collector, board game designer, writer, blogger, online radio show host and more, though not necessarily in that order, and he is a firm believer in the maxim "you learn something new every day."

Make sure to hear Jason's "GET ON DOWN WITH THE STEPFATHER OF SOUL!" show on Rockin' Radio, where we play the "best oldies you've never heard!"

International Praise for Get on Down!

Rhythm & Booze!

Make sure to come to El Myr Burrito Lounge in Atlanta on the third Saturday of each month for RHYTHM & BOOZE, Atlanta's oldest soul record party, hosted by Tim Lawrence and featuring guest DJs, including your ever-lovin' Stepfather of Soul!

Legal Disclaimer

All MP3s and other audio files presented on the GET ON DOWN WITH THE STEPFATHER OF SOUL blog are the property of the artists and/or companies who own the copyrights to them. Neither GET ON DOWN nor Jason Stone assert any claim to the copyrights on such material, which is presented here for educational, critical and non-commercial use.

If you are the owner of the copyrights to any material featured on this blog and do not wish for it to be so featured, please notify me and I will remove it immediately.